Instances
by zarah joyce
Summary: Usually Nishikado Soujiroh is a composed, collected individual. USUALLY. Soujiroh/Yuki/Akira. Updated!
1. Chapter 1

**Instances**

Nishikado Soujiroh glanced at his phone as it rang. He rolled his eyes, but picked it up to check who was calling him - although he had a hunch as to who it was.

Honestly, the girl should have enough common sense _to stop calling him._ And Soujiroh - being a gentleman, of course - would never allow something so brutal to come out of his mouth. He dropped hints every now and then, hoping _she_ would just get it on her own. It was... gentler that way. More tactful. More--

He did a double-take.

Well _this_ was a surprise. It wasn't her, for a change.

Soujiroh tossed the still-ringing phone to his bed, noting that whoever was calling was not important enough to talk to. Knowing it wasn't necessary to bring his phone with him tonight, he walked out of his room and into a new night.

-

His phone sounded again; this time it was a text message asserting its arrival to him. Soujiroh sighed. This time he was certain who sent it; after all if her calls didn't come through - because he was purposely ignoring them - she always seemed to text him. For what reason, he didn't know. To check if he was still alive, perhaps?

Lazily, he flipped his phone open, mentally preparing himself to see her name on it.

Only it wasn't.

The number was unfamiliar, and it was an invitation to--

Soujiroh didn't bother to find out. He immediately deleted the message and, again, tossed the phone on his bed, glaring at it as if it had committed some sin against him.

He had become annoyed, all of a sudden. Why, he didn't know. Soujiroh checked his watch, noting that he still had two hours before his appointment with Akira - though appointment might be a tad too formal. As usual, they were going to--

His phone rang.

Hours later, Soujiroh would be mentally assuring himself that _he did not, _by all means_, jump on the bed in his haste to answer the phone._

But for now, he pressed the phone to his ear and said, "Yo," making the single syllable sound as cool as humanly possible.

"Yo," the very masculine tones of one Mimasaka Akira reached his ears, making him scowl. "I can't make it."

"What?"

"Something came up." And with that, Akira ended the call.

It wasn't as if Soujiroh spent every waking hour with Akira, because that would be... odd. Not to mention weird. But in some ways, Soujiroh preferred to go clubbing with any of his friends than on his own.

Well.

Looked like this night's going to be one of _those_ days when he'd be flying solo.

Not that there was any problem with it. In fact it was fine. More than fine, even. It was--

The phone rang.

Since it was in his hand already, Soujiroh answered it.

"Soujiroh-kun?"

It was a female voice. He felt himself smiling now; a bit too pleased and smug. He knew it. He knew she wouldn't last a day - let alone a week - without calling and/or texting him, and now--

Wait a minute.

"Who's this?" he demanded, shooting off the bed and getting on his feet. "Who are you?"

"Soujiroh-kun, it's me, Momoko-chan. Remember? Last night--"

He closed his phone and threw it on the bed for the third time. Honestly, just how do these people manage to get his number, anyway?

-

It had been a full two weeks without a word from her.

Not that he was counting. It was just that Soujiroh had managed to connect the number of days with, you know, the time he had spent _not_ visiting the dango shop and seeing her pop up behind him everywhere, like a crazy shadow-like stalker intent on eating him alive.

At first, Soujiroh was flippant about the whole thing. Maybe she was busy with something. School-stuff, probably. Maybe she left the country for a vacation. With her family, perhaps. Maybe she found a boyfriend and was spending time with him--

His hands balled to fists for no apparent reason at this thought.

Or maybe she had been kidnapped. Maybe she was somewhere dark, blindfolded and tied, scared out of her mind and crying, calling out his name like a prayer. Maybe some evil man had his hands on her right this second, laughing like only an evil man could and moving his hands up her defenseless body and--

Soujiroh fought panic and reached for his phone. He dialed her number - it was _not_ on his speed-dial list of course, it just so happened that he needed only to press one number to call her - and after three rings and an endless barrage of curses from him she answered, "Hello?"

Alright, so she wasn't kidnapped and tied up and whatever. He breathed a sigh of relief. _Several_ sighs of relief. He probably sounded like he was hyperventilating or something.

"Nishikado-san?"

He frowned, thinking of something to tell her. Brilliantly he said, "Yo."

"...Nishikado-san? Are you alright?"

Soujiroh was on the verge of asking - no, demanding - why she hadn't called him for a full two weeks when--

"Oh, I'm sorry I must go now." Her voice then faded, as if she had her phone away from her mouth. "Mimasaka-san, here I am! I'm--"

_Beep._ The line went dead.

Hours later, Soujiroh would be mentally reassuring himself that he did _not,_ by all means, gape at his phone for a full minute.

_Mimasaka-san?_

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Instances**

More than anything, Nishikado Soujiroh was a composed, collected individual. Tea ceremonies needed grace in its execution, and for grace to appear in a person, there had to be at least some semblance of inner peace and tranquility. He was a master of tea ceremonies, having done each and every one perfectly and without fail, so grace, inner peace, and tranquility were not alien aspects to him.

But when Mimasaka Akira showed up the next day, all these aspects were abruptly forgotten. One could say they never even existed in the first place, what with all the creative ways he was imagining how his friend should cheerfully die.

Soujiroh watched intently - a vulture awaiting its prey's last breath - as Akira calmly took his seat. There was something different on his face, which made Soujiroh want to vomit - or hit him. _Hard_. Enough to probably dislodge a front tooth or two.

The bastard was smiling. Beaming, even, like he had discovered the path towards eternal happiness and was walking shamelessly on it.

Raising a brow but not saying anything, Soujiroh observed as Akira took something out of his pocket. Lunch? No; it was too small and besides Akira preferred to buy his food rather than carry it with him. A snack? But it looked too beautifully-wrapped to be called as such. A dess-

_A dessert._

Something that was bought from, say, a dango shop.

At this realization, Soujiroh let out a small and, hopefully, unnoticed gasp.

"Soujiroh," Akira said suddenly, blinking manfully. "I didn't notice you were there."

_That_ was just too low a blow, especially for Akira.

_No one_ ignored Nishikado Soujiroh! No one treated him like some unimportant particle of air that happened to float by!

"I've been sitting here all this time," Soujiroh snarled. He had a temper that could rival Domyouji's, if all the right buttons were pushed. And this time, Akira was stomping on them atop a ten-wheeler truck. "Too preoccupied, aren't you? Have you, perhaps, destroyed a family or two last night? Is this the reason why you're so happy today?"

As soon as these words were out Soujiroh wished he hadn't said them, but a quick glance at Akira showed his friend wasn't listening, anyway.

He wasn't listening because he had taken out his phone and was smiling like a madman while looking down at it.

"That girl," he said, in a voice that shouldn't have reached another person's ears, as soft and private as it was.

Of course, Soujiroh - having so inconspicuously scooted his chair closer to Akira he was already invading his friend's personal space and not caring the least about it - heard.

_That girl._

"Who's that?" Soujiroh asked, proud that the murder in his tone was not that much apparent. He had a feeling - a sick, gut-wrenching feeling - as to what the identity of the girl Akira referred to was.

His friend looked at him, discovered their seemingly intimate proximity - as in one inch closer and they would become _really _intimate - and gracefully stood. "Yuki-chan," Akira answered, closing his phone and putting it in his pocket. He then picked up one of the sweets he had brought and placed it in his mouth, savoring the taste slowly and wickedly.

All the while, Soujiroh was seeing every damned shade of red available in the world. "Yuki--"

Of course, it was not wise to jump to conclusions, seeing as it was nearly impossible to have only one woman named Yuki in the entirety of Japan. As such, many different Yukis could be affectionately labeled 'Yuki-chan' without any problems, as this was the norm and--

"You don't mind, do you?" Then Akira chuckled, halting Soujiroh's thought processes altogether. "Wait. Why am I asking? Of course you don't mind. Why would you?"

Oh yes. Akira would definitely look better with two or five front teeth missing.

Soujiroh was about to deliver this dentist-needing blow when his 'friend' robbed him of this pleasure simply by waving at him and walking away.

-

The world was pushing him to use every single weapon he had under his belt. It was its fault, anyway, for being so out of order.

_Yuki_ and Akira? Yuki _and _Akira? Yuki and _Akira?_

End of days indeed. The world was begging to be whipped.

So! Here was Nishikado Soujiroh, trying to fix things. Looking every inch like the martyr he was, he strolled into the dango shop.

Any moment now he expected to be mauled and worshiped heavily. Such were the natural progression of things in a normal universe. He had already foreseen it: the second he walked into the shop he would hear a ear-splitting cry of "Nishikado-san!!!!!" This time though, he wouldn't run away, despite every fiber of his being screaming for him to do so. He would face her abnormal adoration and adulation of him with the best will in the world. He would smile at her, a sweet gentle smile that would surely remind her that she was his--

Soujiroh started to hyperventilate at this thought.

_FRIEND! He would give her a smile to remind her that she was his friend!_

He breathed deeply - suddenly relieved - and steeled himself, then went in--

--just in time to get the biggest shock in the world.

There was no one there.

Which was abnormal for a shop. Shouldn't there be at least a--

"...Nishikado-san?"

Soujiroh nearly jumped out of his skin - although there was really no need for such an extreme reaction, as instead of shouting his name like she usually did, this time she uttered it with a quizzical look on her face. Like she was wondering what on earth he could be doing in the shop.

He nearly scoffed at his own thought. HA! As if! This was a public place, wasn't it? People were expected to come in and buy stuff all the time, weren't they? He was only doing what was expected of him, as one of the populace who had money!

Also, he came in not because he wanted to check on her and change her mind about Akira; he came in because he wanted sweets! Yes, dumplings and sweets! He had the biggest sweet tooth in the whole wide world and he needed to satisfy his craving with sweets! He was not, in any way, thinking of melting all the sweets and dumplings in the shop and drowning Akira in their sticky depths!

"Nishikado-san? Are you alright? You look like... you look like you wanted to kill someone."

Oh no. This wouldn't do at all.

Erasing all menacing thoughts took a lot of effort, but he was able to do it. Smiling now, full of charm and boyish handsomeness he was nearly shining with it, Soujiroh casually flung an arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer to his side. Most women would have melted into a puddle of love right now, to be given a chance to be this close to him. Yuki should, at any moment, nosebleed and faint in dead earnest.

But she did neither of these things.

Instead she raised a brow at him - _raised a brow at him!_ - and removed his hold on her.

_Removed...!_

It was a good thing Soujiroh was a graceful man by nature; else he would've fallen on his face right now.

"Is there really any reason for you to be here?" she asked, folding her arms and tapping her foot in an irritating rhythm. "You haven't said anything yet. Is this--"

"Yo! Yuki-chan!"

And Soujiroh knew for certain that Akira had a death wish. He really, really did.

"_Mimasaka-san_!" Yuki shrieked, turning all shades of pink and giggling like an idiot.

He grinned at her and, just like what Soujiroh did earlier, flung an arm around her shoulders.

Did she remove it? Oh no. She giggled even more and, if anyone looked closely enough - Soujiroh did, by the way - she appeared to have burrowed further into Akira's side, as if she freakin' belonged there.

"Oh. Soujiroh," Akira said, acknowledging his presence as if an afterthought. He looked at Yuki again. "You ready?"

"For what?" This time, Soujiroh was the one who spoke.

"We're going to watch a movie," Yuki said, smiling ever-so-happily up at his friend, it made Soujiroh want to either vomit or cheerfully maim the sole heir to a Yakuza organization. He was leaning towards the latter, obviously.

"See you later," Akira said, giving him a mock salute.

And then they were gone.

This was the second time Akira had left him with a burning desire to kill without anyone around. The second time _that day_! Within two hours! It was certainly a record of some sort.

Without thinking, he called five numbers in rapid succession. To all of them, he said the same thing:

"I'll pick you up, beautiful. We're watching a movie."

TBC

**Author's notes:**I'm sorry, but writing Soujiroh this way is proving to be very therapeutic to me XD Thank you for your reviews, and see you next chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

**Instances**

"Oh, Soujiroh-kun! Just _where_ are you taking us, you naughty boy?"

"Ooh! Hotel? King's Deluxe Luxury Suite?"

"Your room!"

"Gasp! Oh my! We're going to the Nishikado house - hold me, Haruka-chan, I'm about to swoon!"

Sometimes, being a gentleman frustrated the hell out of Nishikado Soujiroh. See, being a gentleman meant him needing to follow certain rules and regulations on how to, say, talk to women. A gentleman would never say, "No, you stupid bunch of airheads with too much make up and foul breaths! I told you we were going to see a movie, didn't I, you morons? So shut the hell up and let me think for a minute! And _you_ - keep your mouth closed, please! I'd like to breathe some time this month!" He could never say those things, no matter how much the words were already on his tongue, just begging to be released.

Instead, Soujiroh piled on the charm. He placed a finger on top of one woman's lips to keep her from exhaling and flashed a small, beguiling smile. "I told you, ladies - I'm in the mood to watch a movie today." Not that he had, you know, any idea what movies were on this century. He wasn't much of a movie enthusiast, anyway.

He checked his watch; an hour had already passed since he had the unfortunate luck of witnessing Akira and Yuki leave the dango shop together. There was not enough time to beat the hell out of Akira, let alone ask oh-so-casually just what movie they were going to see. And Soujiroh had no plans of stopping by every damned movie house on the planet just to check if _that_ movie house was the one they were in. He wasn't _that_ crazy yet, after all!

So! Soujiroh used a tactic he had found very effective since the tender age of three: bribery.

And sure enough, his phone rang.

He grinned at his harem of giggling women and shushed them with a gesture and a wink. "Yes?"

Three seconds later and the call had been ended. A minute more and he had began to move. "Driver!" Soujiroh yelled, tapping the glass that separated them. "Stop right here!"

He led the way out of his vehicle, still smiling his best Most Impersonal Yet Very Attractive smile. The girls swooned at this and, predictably formed a cocoon of worship and adoration around him. This scene, of course, did not escape the discerning eye of the public, and soon every single woman within the vicinity had dropped whatever they were doing in order to flock towards him and scream his name in adulation.

Soujiroh snorted, then elegantly ran his hand through his hair, causing women everywhere to sigh and dream of babies and love.

_Yes_, he thought. _I still got it_.

He had just proven that it was most definitely Matsuoka Yuki's loss that she seemed to have moved on from him to Mimasaka Akira. Or, in his words, from green, lush fields to deader, decaying pasture.

This thought caused a dark cloud to rain over his initial happy thoughts - but only for a second. Well. _Well_. He'd show her! And that damned Akira too! Some best friend he turned out to be.

"Come, ladies," he said, smiling some more and even winking here and there so hard his eyelid began to hurt. "My treat. I'm in the mood... to fall in love."

Oh, the slow burn he had felt, when he had found out that Akira and Yuki had gone to the movie house to watch a romantic film! What the hell was going on with the world? Akira had long ago sworn that the only reason he would be watching romantic flicks was if a sword was pointed at his jugular and his family was suspended by their ankles atop a pot of boiling oil. What made him, the heir to a Yakuza regime, change his mind? Was Yuki far more resourceful than Soujiroh had given her credit for? Had she, by chance, managed to do the unthinkable: blackmail one Mimasaka Akira?

Yes, that was probably it.

The other alternative - that maybe they have fallen in love - was unthinkable. So unthinkable that Soujiroh had stopped thinking about it and vowed _never_ to think such a stupid thought ever again.

He and his harem approached the entrance. He raised a brow at one guy, and immediately this man bowed before him and went inside the moviehouse. Soon a commotion of people shouting "What the--" "Move!" "But this is my seat--" "Not anymore!" "What do you mean--" "I said move over there!" could be heard.

"Soujiroh-kun?" one woman asked him, a bit alarmed. "What's going on?"

"I wanted us to have a perfect view," he replied. Soujiroh looked around him. "I hope that is alright with you...?"

This sensitive, thoughtful question was predictably met with sighs and adoring looks.

The guy he had paid to clear one area for him reappeared at the door. "Nishikado-sama. Your seats are now ready."

"Thank you, Kanjou-san." Soujiroh grabbed a wad of cash out of his pocket and handed it to the man, who accepted it gratefully.

"Come on, ladies," he said, bracing himself. "Let's go."

-

It was dark and the movie was already reaching its half when they entered. Soujiroh gritted his teeth; the women were making too much noise, so he shushed them attractively (yes, attractively damnit) to make everyone shut the hell up.

He took a seat, and casually looked around him. It didn't come as a surprise to see two people glaring at him from the seats before theirs; well, one was. The other was shaking his head.

"Ah! Yuki-chan! Akira!" he said, perfectly intoning his 'surprise'. "Isn't this a funny coincidence? What are you two doing here?"

"I think we should be asking you that question, Nishikado-san," Yuki told him, and the flickering lights of the movie revealed she was definitely _not_ happy.

"Well, the answer's fairly obvious, isn't it?" Soujiroh said. "We're in a movie house. There's a movie playing right now in front of us. I think it's fairly safe to say we're watching a movie." He smiled. "Logic, Yuki-chan."

Akira turned towards him - and in the dim lights it was harder to say if he was teasing or not. "Really?" he said. "What movie are we watching, then?"

Soujiroh's careless smile froze at Akira's question. Damn it he should have been prepared for this! He should have, oh, peeked at the gigantic posters which were proudly displayed outside!

But there was always a handy solution available.

He grabbed the shoulders of the woman closest to him. "What's the title of this film again, darling?"

"Ooh!" she said, giggling. "Soujiroh-kun, you are such a funny man! It's _Asu no Egao no Tameni_." She looked at Yuki-chan and Akira. "Don't tell me you two don't know what you're watching?"

"Well, love," Soujiroh said sorrowfully. "Some people are just unobservant like that."

Yuki fairly huffed and turned to watch the movie again. Akira kept his eyes on Soujiroh, before casually setting his arm around Yuki's shoulders and pulling her closer to him.

Soujiroh froze again.

"Mimasaka-san!" came her voice. Then she giggled. "You're so--"

"Hush, Yuki-chan," said Akira. "Let's just watch the movie in peace."

Yuki sighed. "If you say so. I--"

But Soujiroh had heard enough.

Without thinking, he stood and made his way out of the movie house, ignoring the gasps and the women clamoring to follow him. He did not stop walking until he had reached his car, and once in he had almost shattered his windows when he closed the door.

"Driver!" he yelled. "Get me the hell out of here! _Now_!"

**Author's Notes: **Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out. And thank you for your reviews! See you in the next chapter I hope!


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